A Little Bit of Sunshine

It's February and just this past Saturday I was scraping chunks of ice off of my front walkway.  But today, we enjoyed a warm day reminiscent of April instead.  So, I thought of making something that was as warm and cheery as today!

Have I mentioned I love washi tape?  It's amazing stuff!  Washi tape is easy to apply, tears like masking tape, on some surfaces can be peeled and removed again, AND you can write on it!  I use it frequently to decorate things, including this cute photo frame.

It all started with a picture frame I found on clearance.  And this is what it was transformed into!

Washi Tape made this easy!  I started with painting the frame white with some craft paint.  Then, I played around with a design on some scratch paper before starting the pattern on the frame.

The pattern I decided upon used the Gingham Garden washi tape set from Stampin' Up!.  Starting in one corner made it easy to continue the pattern over the frame. I laid the two strips of yellow and pink tape down first, then the flower strip was laid in an over-under pattern where it went over the yellow piece and under the pink piece.  That might be more complicated that you wish to do, but the washi tape being easy to pull back made the pattern much easier than it might sound!

Here's a closer look at the creation of the pattern.  After tearing off a few strips of the yellow and pink patterned washi and laying them across my frame, I could pull a portion of the strip up to lay down the floral pattern.  Then, the pink strip could be placed back over it.

As you go around, continue your pattern until you reach the other corner.  Don't worry about the excess tape that is hanging over the sides yet as this will be used to wrap around the side of the frame.  You can then easily trim off the excess!  For the inner corners, I made a small cut in the tape toward the corner, then pulled the two pieces of tape to the sides of the frame.

And those cute flowers on the finished frame, I used washi for those too!  I took a scrap of white paper and covered it with strips of washi tape on one side then another color on the back of the paper, trimming the excess tape from the edges of the paper when I finished.

I then used a punch (or you can trace a circle pattern) onto the paper to cut out a circle.  Starting on the outside of the circle, I used scissors to cut in a circular motion to make a spiral.  When I got to toward the center, I left a little circular bit so my flower would have a base.  I used the spiral flower die from SU as a sort of template for this idea.

Starting with the outer edge to the spiral, I wrapped it around a pencil to help tighten spiral into more of a curlycue.  I then (for lack of a better term) "squished" the spiral together so the spiral made concentric circular rings toward the little base, which was then hot glued together.  A double bow of Daffodil Delight trim, some leaves cut from the bird builder punch, and we're all set!

The best part?  I'm giving it away.  Yep!  Comment on this post or like it on Facebook to be entered to have this little bit of spring in your home!